Dover cop suspended during assault probe

A Dover police officer has been on paid suspension for four months while police and prosecutors investigate his use of force in arresting a man his lawyer claims is a combative "career felon.''

Cpl. Thomas W. Webster IV, 40, an eight-year veteran of the force, is receiving his $64,000 annual salary while authorities probe his Aug. 24 arrest of Lateef Dickerson on assault and other charges.

Attorney General Beau Biden's office is planning to seek a grand jury indictment next week charging Webster with assault, sources familiar with the case said.

"We can confirm that the officer is under investigation but can't comment any further," Hoffman said. "Things should be moving on this issue in the next week or so."

Details of what Webster allegedly did to Dickerson have not been made public, but investigators have a video of the confrontation, Dover police spokesman Cpl. Mark Hoffman and Chief James E. Hosfelt said Wednesday, adding that they will not release the video now. "That's all evidence at this point," Hoffman said.

Richard Smith, president of the state NAACP, said Hosfelt briefed him on the case and possible charges against Webster on Saturday.

"He said the video was so bad that he had to take a stand to lock this police officer up," Smith said. "He said we wouldn't want to see the video because it would upset the whole community. He said it was pitiful but wouldn't go into details."

Smith said relations between police and the black community have been tense in recent years, and said that if Webster is charged criminally, that might send a message to residents that the city won't tolerate police brutality.

"We hope to see him charged and that justice will prevail. Just to see him go to court would unite people," Smith said. "The black community and the city of Dover need to come together."

The investigation began on Oct. 13 after a complaint was filed with Dover police, Hoffman said. The NAACP's Smith said Dickerson filed the complaint and that during the investigation the video was given to police.

Webster was suspended with pay Nov. 4, Hoffman said. The suspension was not announced in keeping with the department's personnel policy, Hoffman said.

Reached Wednesday morning at his home near Felton, Webster would not comment. But his attorney, James E. Liguori, issued a statement that said his client's use of force was proper and necessary.

"Tom Webster's quick thinking and instincts helped keep a very bad guy off our streets," wrote Liguori, who added that Webster spent nine years as a Delaware correctional officer before joining the Dover force.

Dickerson, 29, has four felony convictions and has been arrested several dozen times, Liguori wrote.

The altercation occurred at the Hess service station on U.S. 13 in Dover, where officers were dispatched after a 911 call that Dickerson and others "were armed and in a fight,'' Liguori's statement said. No one had weapons, Liguori said, but Webster had to use force against Dickerson.

The defense attorney did not say that Dickerson was violent before Webster used force, only that the suspect did not comply with police orders.

"All Lateef Dickerson had to do was comply'' with Webster and another officer "and it wouldn't have been necessary for him to be forcefully restrained," Liguori wrote.

Webster "looks forward to trial in this matter. His actions were justified. This was not an indiscriminate exercise of the use of unnecessary force. Tom Webster's day in court will not be soon enough. He protected all of us that day, even Mr. Dickerson. when he chose to use less than lethal force to get this career felon under arrest and off of our streets."

Dickerson was charged with assault, theft, resisting arrest and other offenses in the Hess incident, Hoffman said Wednesday morning, adding that the criminal case remains open.

Dickerson is currently serving 60 days at the Central Violation of Probation Center in Smyrna, corrections spokesman John Painter said.

News Journal files show that Dickerson, was charged with assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and drug offenses in September 2012 after a traffic stop in Middletown, and with armed robbery and weapons charges in 2006 and 2008.